ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday accused his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu of committing “crimes against humanity” comparable to those of the gunmen behind the Paris attacks that left 17 dead.
Davutoglu’s comments risk inflaming a new row in the increasingly tense bilateral ties after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted Netanyahu for “daring” to attend the weekend’s anti-terror solidarity march in Paris after the attacks.
Davutoglu sniped that Netanyahu had looked “alone” at the Paris march against terrorism, where the Turkish and Israeli prime ministers had joined other world leaders in a show of solidarity. A statement by the Turkish presidency Thursday said Netanyahu had staged “a miserable political show” by attending the Paris rally and had sought to exploit the event for “his own political purposes.”
“The Israeli government should abandon its aggressive and racist policies, instead of attacking others under the pretext of anti-Semitism,” presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in the statement.
Davutoglu condemned the publication of blasphemous cartoons as an “open provocation,” warning that Turkey would not tolerate insults against the Prophet (peace be upon him).
Davutoglu said Netanyahu’s “crimes against humanity” included the deadly 2010 Israeli assault on a Turkish aid vessel and last year’s onslaught on Hamas-controlled Gaza. In 2010, Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in an aid flotilla for the besieged Gaza Strip.
Davutoglu said Netanyahu was “the head of a government which massacred children playing in the beaches in Gaza and destroyed thousands of houses.”
He said the Israeli premier’s government “made almost natural the killing of Palestinians at every opportunity.”
It had also “massacred our citizens by launching an operation against an aid ship in international waters.”
No comments:
Post a Comment